{"id":936427,"date":"2026-10-22T03:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936427\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T03:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:28:11","slug":"new-zealand-hits-record-arrivals-from-australia-as-global-visits-near-2019-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936427\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand hits record arrivals from Australia as global visits near 2019 level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                New Zealand welcomed a record 125,600 visitors from Australia in August, giving the destination a strong, timely boost ahead of the busy summer travel season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The figure marks the highest number of Australian arrivals for any August, according to Tourism New Zealand chief executive Ren\u00e9 de Monchy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By comparison, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures recorded 113,390 visitors in August 2025, 106,450 in August 2024 and 112,640 in August 2019. The country was the second most-visited overseas destination for the month, after Indonesia. Karryon reported on the latest Australian travel trends <a href=\"https:\/\/karryon.com.au\/industry-news\/need-to-know\/vietnam-lead-rise-travel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across all markets, NZ welcomed 3.7 million international visitors in the year to August, up 9% year-on-year and reaching 95% of 2019 levels. August arrivals alone recovered to 99% of the same month in 2019, de Monchy said in an email.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TNZ-Omanawanui-Walking-Track_Auckland_Credit-Miles-Holden.jpg.webp\" alt=\"Couple walking on the O\u0304manawanui Walking Track_Auckland_Credit Miles Holden\" class=\"wp-image-3177188\" title=\"New Zealand hits record arrivals from Australia as global visits near pre-COVID levels 1\"  \/>Couple walking on the O\u0304manawanui Walking Track near Auckland. (Image Miles Holden\/Tourism NZ)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To capitalise on the momentum, Tourism New Zealand has launched a multi-year initiative with Expedia to promote the destination in Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Destination content is already live, encouraging travel through December, with a co-developed campaign due to launch early next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, NZ\u2019s cruise season began this month, with 642 port calls expected to bring more than 223,000 passengers and almost 97,000 crew members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over in the US, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newzealand.com\/au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tourism New Zealand<\/a>\u2019s Studio New Zealand campaign is promoting nature-led wellness, prompting some viewers to ask whether its hero video was AI-generated. It wasn\u2019t by the way. In a recent interview with Karryon, Destination Queenstown and Lake W\u0101naka CEO Mat Woods elaborates on the surge in the wellness sector in NZ\u2019s tourism capital, Queenstown. Check that out <a href=\"https:\/\/karryon.com.au\/industry-news\/destination\/destination-queenstown-26\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elsewhere, NZ also launched a new China campaign starring actor Li Xian, as arrivals from China rose by 6,500 year-on-year in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-2 wp-block-paragraph\">KARRYON UNPACKS: Record Australian arrivals and an Expedia campaign give New Zealand tourism momentum. Travel advisors should watch for opportunities to turn renewed interest into longer stays and regional itineraries this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand welcomed a record 125,600 visitors from Australia in August, giving the destination a strong, timely boost&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-936427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}